Dulux dog returns in colourful comeback

Dulux has brought back Britain’s most recognisable Old English Sheepdog in a new chapter for one of advertising’s longest‑running brand properties.

Remember in 2025 when I kept banging on about brands bringing back mascots (quite validly, I’ll add)? Well, they’re at it again.

The latest mascot-resurrecting spot introduces Dorothy, a 21‑month‑old Old English Sheepdog (awww), as the new ‘Dulux Dog’. And, at the risk of inflating her ego, frankly, her acting chops are superior to the last hound’s efforts.

As you’d expect, the campaign leans heavily into nostalgia while updating the brand’s tone for a new generation.

Set in and around the home, the film sees Dorothy pad whimsically through everyday decorating moments with an almost spiritual grace, occasionally shaking her mop to bestow a little Tinkerbell-style fairy dust onto the decors she so elegantly graces.

The ad nods to the brand’s ‘Let’s Colour’ slogan, depicting paint as the catalyst that turns a house into a home - with the dog being fairly central to the various transformations.

A dogged history

The Dulux Dog was quite the mainstay in UK advertising lore, first appearing accidentally in 1961 when the director’s own Old English Sheepdog, Dash, kept wandering into shot. The footage was so charming that it stayed in the final edit and a brand icon was born through glorious happenstance.

Since then, a lineage of Dulux Dogs – from Digby to Mash, Willow, Madison and Olivia – have carried the brand through decades of campaigns, from functional paint demos to more emotive, family‑focused storytelling. (Although, as alluded to earlier, acting connoisseurs like myself feel Dorothy piques them all in terms of her thespian range and nuance.)

Either way, the character has become cultural shorthand for reliability and homeliness, and Dulux marketing veterans talk to this day about the ‘Dulux Dog Effect’, which saw staff and customers queuing for photos with the various dog at events – proof of how deeply embedded the character is in British brand memory.

It’s a dog’s life

Dulux is wisely doubling down on distinctive brand assets at a time when instant nostalgia is hard to resist.

The new film doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel; instead, it refreshes a 60‑plus‑year‑old property with a lighter, more contemporary lifestyle tone.

Whether the new character proves to be a bold brand asset, or a retro liability rests on Dorothy’s more than capable paws.